“Mobile TV” refers to over-the-air broadcast or multicast of TV content to handheld devices such as cell phones. Several technologies have been proposed for mobile TV, including DVB-H, DMB, 3G Based technologies, and the “MediaFlo” system.
As understood herein, in general mobile TV broadcast technologies improve upon non-Mobile TV broadcast technologies by improving Forward Error Correction (FEC) as well as receiver battery life, both of which advances are desired for mobile devices.
As further understood herein, however, in seeking to preserve battery power, a tradeoff is made that increases the latency (delay) of the broadcast content. In understanding why, several channels may be time-sliced onto one broadcast, i.e., the content of one channel might be broadcast at a high data rate for two seconds, followed by the content of another channel at a high data rate for two seconds, followed the content of yet a third channel at a high data rate for two seconds, and so on. Hence, a mobile receiver's radio and front end logic need only be energized for the two seconds in which the user-selected channel is broadcast out of every cycle, remaining off and thus saving power for the remaining time. To this end, the receiver is notified via system information packets and packet IDs when the contents of a particular program will be broadcast as well as the duration of the on and off periods.
But as recognized herein, the above power-saving protocol imposes a relatively lengthy delay if the user changes the channel, forcing the user to wait up to a complete cycle until the content for the new channel arrives. This delay is annoying particularly to users who tend to frequently “channel hop”.